There are scenes in films created simply to demonstrate to the audience how tough a character is. Often they are action scenes. But sometimes a crafty director can show a character’s toughness simply by how they answer a question.

My favorite scene in Ben Affleck’s The Town is like that. A heist film with several shootouts worthy of Heat, the film is anchored between the friendship of Affleck and Jeremy Renner’s characters. In this scene Affleck asks Renner a question. I love the way Renner answers. It’s the way true friends should answer. The action scene that follows is just icing on their character sketch:… Read the rest